I had been using my daughter's tablet for all my instgramming needs, which was becoming a little awkward, what with it being hers and me being constantly on it. So, when it broke down the other week (thank heaven's I'd taken out insurance) it seemed the perfect opportunity to get one for myself. This I did, a sweet little 7" Alba which was much easier to handle and hold than my daughter's 10" Acer and, for a while, all seemed perfection. Then, disaster struck. I came home from work one day to find it flashing the Alba logo, we could neither switch it on or off, in short, it was broken. So, back to Argos I trotted, clutching my receipt, only to be told it was probably a loose battery and they could send it away to be fixed, but, it could take up to 2 weeks and no, they wouldn't 'loan' me one to use in the meantime. I very politely declined that offer and asked for a new one, unable to believe my ears when the customer service girl remarked "well, I suppose you can't expect things to last forever". Maybe not, but I do expect them to last longer than a week. So, now I have yet another new tablet. It is annoying, more so because I lost a whole week's worth of reviews, promo pics and Instagram posts that I'd spent the whole weekend preparing. I'm now looking into getting an cloud thingy account as this is now the second time this has happened to me!

It was Valentine's Day yesterday, oh deep joy. As you've probably gathered, I am not the most romantic of souls, being deeply cynical of the whole red roses, hearts and chocolates deal. I mean, if I were with someone, I would rather they did something thoughtful any other time of the year than the one day social pressure dictates they should.

Apparently, it was our cat's birthday yesterday - I am just told these things - and we had to buy her presents. This we did, and the said presents were wrapped and left on the kitchen counter, ready to give to her first thing Tuesday morning. But, when I got up, the naughty little madam had knocked all her presents to the floor, had ripped open the catnip mouse and has hidden it somewhere! Whether we'll ever see it again is debatable.

If anyone is following my blog, hello, is there anybody there, knock once for yes ... I finally had an email from Curtis Brown yesterday, saying "Thank you very much for submitting The Forest, unfortunately, blah blah blah..." So, that's it. I was expecting them to say no, but still... Non writing people seem to think it a very easy and stress free existence, but nothing could be further from the truth. Not only is the actual writing intensely frustrating in a 'tear your hair out can't think of the right word' way, but it's the aftermath, if you self-publish it's the flogging your book around to all and sundry, begging for reviews, desperately trying to get people to buy it, read it, like it. If you try to main stream publish, then it's the constant rejection, the constant pain of sending your baby out into the cold world and being told that what you have produced aka what you are, is rubbish and not worth the paper it's printed on! So, why do we do it? Because we're dreamers and we dream the dream, and it's almost impossible, despite what Les Miserables says, to completely kill that dream. So we go on, hoping that one day, just maybe...

Any thoughts or comments from other writers out there are very welcome. Struggling, aspiring, published, whatever stage you are at, it would be great to hear from you.